Honor remains
by Madam Callisto
Summary: "You'd prefer if I died fighting you then?" Diarmuid says, his voice heavy with amusement.


Confusion flashes briefly across Diarmuid face and he steps backwards, looking past Saber and the forest to where the great white walls of the Einzbern's castle lies. Saber frowns and follows his gaze but whatever it is that the lancer is watching she cannot see. She doesn't lower her sword but she gives him a moment alone with his thoughts. Though it would have been his own fault if she attacked him in his distracted state, Saber does not think it would be in good sport.

At last he turns to her with a sigh. "It seems that I've already lost our battle, king of knights. My Master has made a foolish decision and come out here to fight without my protection. Your own Master must have defeated him."

_Kiritsugu? _Saber narrows her eyes. She should not be surprised. It sounds very like him; interfering with their battle to end things with such underhanded means. She tightens her hold on her sword. "Then you say our fight is at an end?"

Diarmuid sighs, lowering his lance so that the tip just skims the forest floor. "I have lost the source of mana that sustains me Saber," he says, "there is nothing more that I can-"

He jumps backwards with a sound of surprise, raising his weapon to block the swing of Saber's invisible sword. "Saber?" Without stopping she swings again and this time Diarmuid meets her swing with one of his own.

"You say your Master has been defeated, Lancer?" Saber smiles. Her next swing goes over Diarmuid's head as he is forced to duck away from it. "Well I do not see how that means that our fight is at an end! You promised to show me what is it that you can do and I do not intend to be cheated out of our fair match."

Diarmuid laughs. His first answering thrust cuts away a few strands of Saber's hair but she is quick to force his lance back.

"You'd prefer if I died fighting you then?" Diarmuid says, his voice heavy with amusement.

"Of course," says Saber, "I swore to myself that the honor of defeating you would be mine and mine alone. I will not let our story end this wayafter you've come so far to meet me on the field of battle." Her sword lets loose sparks as it scrapes at Diarmuids lance and the light illuminates the matching eagerness in both of their smiles in golden light. Saber cannot quite restrain her excitement at seeing all hesitance washed from Diarmuid face.

"I must warn you," says Diarmuid. "I've got nothing to lose now. My mana will soon run out and I'll vanish either way."

Saber steps away and lets both of their weapons strike the ground besides them, freeing dirt and grass into the air. She turns a half-circle to strike at his now exposed back but Diarmuid manages to bring up his second lance to block the blow just in time.

"That's good then," says Saber, "If you have nothing to lose then I do not need to hold back either." She tightens her grip briefly on her sword and the shield of wind that usually hides it from others eyes fades away, revealing Excalibur in all of its glory. Diarmuid drops the smaller of his two lances in favor of swinging the larger with both hands. Saber's lighter frame is pushed back but she lands firmly on her feet just a second before he thrusts again. And then again.

"Thank you for this, Saber!" Diarmuid calls midst the flurry of his attacks. "Truly you alone made my time here worth while!"

Saber grunts as blocking a particularly fierce thrust drives her back, her feet tearing the ground beneath her. She grits her teeth but her smile does not waver. "You honor me, Lancer. I too have had little in the way of honorable combat outside of you! I'm sure that if you and I had been of a similar time we might well have fought together."

Saber flicks her blade at his next thrust and Diarmuid's lancer lodges itself into the forest floor. She takes the opening and lands her first blow on the lancer, catching him lightly on the side with the edge of her blade before the man is dodging and freeing his lance from where it's caught. Diarmuid pauses for only a moment to inspect the wound in his side before raising his lance once more.

"I don't know about that," says Diarmuid, his voice tight with strain, "if we'd been on the same side then I would have been robbed of the honor of fighting you."

"I was more than willing to spar with my knights on occasion." Saber says. She moves in, kicking off of the ground and closing the gap between them. She can hear her blood rushing through her ears like it hasn't since she arrived in this new time and she intends to thank Diarmuid thoroughly for that. There is little else that she can offer the dying man. Diarmuid is holding his ground under her attacks but she knows that his wound and the loss of his mana are taking their toll.

"I've gone from 'on your side' to 'one of your knights' so quickly. I must say, I definitely would have-_nnhh-" _Diarmuid staggers briefly as Excalibur catches him in the thigh and shifts away to avoid the brunt of the blow, "-would have _enjoyed _being one of your knight. But what we are doing now-_haa-_is hardly sparing."

"Well, if I'd meet you on the field of battle, in my time, there would have been no way I'd have let so spectacular a warrior remain on the wrong side." Saber's face was beginning to hurt from smiling. "And when I'd defeated you in combat personally I may well have given you the opportunity to switch sides and join with someone more suited for you. Then we both would have gotten what we wanted."

"Ha!_ If_ you were able to defeat me. And were you really so fair a king as to forgive so easily? or were you more a foolhardy one?"

Diarmuid freezes, his body tensing. Saber is close enough to see the faint tremor that runs through his body before his lance falls from his hands. "Perhaps both." She says quietly, driving her sword deeper into his chest.

Diarmuid steps falter and Saber is quick to catch him against her shoulder and steady him with a firm hand. Diarmuid coughs and Saber can hear the rattle of blood filling his lungs.

"Yes...fair and foolhardy seems like the kind of king I could serve under." He says. There is still joy in his voice, even now. Saber cannot see his face but can see the glimmer of Diarmuid fading out of the corner of her eyes. His body has grown light in her arms.

Saber nods. "I would have been glad to have had you."

"Another battlefield...another time. We might have been amazing to behold, Saber-King Arturia"

Saber squeezes his shoulder gently. Her voice stays even when she says, "The Knights of the Round Table would have liked you well enough."

"And you Arturia?"

"Must you make me repeat myself, Diarmuid?"

"No, you've made yourself clear enough, king of knights." Diarmuid soft laugh dissolves into an echo with the rest of him, falling to the night. The hand that Saber had left on his shoulder moves through empty air. "If there is a person more worthy of the Grail...I have not meet them."

With a sigh, Saber lets Excalibur fade and flexes her fingers. "I've won then, Lancer." She says to the night. And there is a sense of relief within her that always comes with besting someone in combat who was evenly matched with her. It does not happen often enough, she reflects, and even more rarely with a person that she might have been willing to call 'friend'.

Saber takes off into forest, where the Einzbern's castle awaits her. "Another battle field..." She says with a fond smile, "that would have been something."


End file.
